Leralie

I hear you Leralie, and I feel for your loss. Unacceptable. I could also tell the tale of a bunch of luggage that ended up in the water while being off-loaded from the QM2 in Southampton. One acquaintance lost the stuff she needed for her European holiday and was absolutely hysterical. Big mistakes happen, and it's not White Star Service.

Oh dear! That sounds like a terrible experience for your acquaintance! Did they ever fish the bags out of the deep? Thanks for sharing that story.

Mistakes do happen. The mark of a good company is how they deal with those mistakes. Cunard has not dealt with their mistake well, but they have given me a clear message about how little they value their customers. It's a shame. If only I could share with you all a transcript of my conversation with their customer relations representative...it would be funny if it weren't so obtuse!

Leralie - I am so sorry that there has not (as of now) been a happy ending to this ordeal. It is getting to the point that one must travel only with carry-ons if one expects to come home with all the possessions with which they started their trip. But, who knows, you may get a phone call in the distant future and learn that your lost luggage is coming home! Stranger things have happened.

 

On another note, you mentioned that you traveled with your dog and cat. Since I am also the staff to an imperious feline, I would be curious to know how well transporting animals by ship works out.

 

Virginia

Tampa Girl, I would not at this stage recommend travelling with Cunard for any reason.

However, before this upsetting experience I had been prepared to sing the QM2 kennel program's praises. The kennels were clean, the animals were well looked-after, the kennel master was pleasant and adored the animals. Our cat (and dog) did really well and neither was particularly bothered by the experience. That said, one cat on board did not do well and went on hunger strike until he was moved to the owners' cabin (which was done only so that cat would survive and is not done as a matter of course).

Regardless of how I feel about Cunard, the kennel program is excellent. I would NOT take a pet on the QM2 for a holiday (it's a pain to get a pet into the UK in the first place and I definitely do not think that animals particularly enjoy the shipboard experience) but it is a good solution if you are moving overseas and don't want to fly your pet.

That said, we will be moving back to the UK in a few years and we will be flying. I won't deal with Cunard again in the future.

Thank you for the update, Leralie. I understand your distress from the lost of personal items. I would feel the same way. I would also be upset because the realities of customer service are so unsatisfactory. Your bag didn't not fall off the face of the earth and logical suggests what happened to it. It is an aberration from the experience most people have while sailing on large ships---but it happened to YOU, so (of course) it has been devastating and disappointing. Shame on whoever has your bag in his/her/their possession. I hope you have a string of exceptionally good luck in your life to balance this.

Thank you, Jimmybean. I appreciate your kindness.

I hope the OP posts again if only to let us know the outcome of her contact with Brooklyn.

 

It's always a bit deflating not to know the outcome of these sort of "sagas" even if they don't always end well.

 

David.

Hi everyone. Sorry not to have updated you. To be honest, the loss of some of the items in my bag has me incredibly distressed and I have been avoiding the subject altogether.

My bag has not been found. The CCTV footage was reviewed and they never saw my bag on the footage (apparently). The other passengers were eventually contacted and their bags were returned to them. They were not questioned about my bag and Cunard refuses to do so, DESPITE having told me on multiple occasions that they believe these people took my bag. The reason for this is that, legally speaking, they are only allowed to contact customers twice about lost property. Given that they emailed these customers twice (but never made positive contact or received a response), they consider the matter closed.

Cunard's guest relations representative got in touch with me (at my request, having emailed the Cunard president) to let me know that they feel really good about themselves for having done such a thorough job of looking for my bag. He refused to apologise for having lost it, because of course they claim no responsibility. He refused to hear my complaint that the Holland America Group lost property team have been rude and unhelpful. When I explained that I had asked to speak with a supervisor in early November and that she NEVER contacted me back, he suggested that she had done the right thing because she couldn't have helped me anyway.

I do not believe my bag is going to be returned to me.

I also can no longer recommend Cunard or any of the Holland America Group, as their attitude to this ordeal has been dismissive at best.

That's the update. I will, of course, update this forum if something changes but I can't imagine that it will.

Really sorry you've not had your special possessions returned to you. I wonder what was in the bags left behind and if an insurance claim has been made on them?

That's an excellent question. I am planning to call the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal tomorrow anyway, and I will ask them if they will open the bag. They have said no in the past but it has been so long that they might be willing now.

You all are the best! Thanks for helping me stay positive. :)

I agree with you, Scrapnana. I am also a very slow unpacker but it has now been nearly two months. Even if these people don't have my bag, how have they not noticed that they are missing two of their own? Very strange.

Well, there is no news regarding the bag. Cunard has officially stopped looking (but that happened in very early November). I haven't been able to track these people down myself.

At this stage, I am claiming on my insurance for the bag and then crossing my fingers and hoping that the bag turns up somewhere. Cunard assures me that if the bag shows up after I claim, they will still return it to me.

Thank you all for your encouragement and kind words. I will let you know if the bag ever shows up. :(

Your thread, as posted,has made perfect sense to me. Your problem was stated clearly enough for me to follow both the events and frustrations. You asked for help from a group that might be able to help. In your shoes, I would have done the same thing. I am sympathetic to issues of privacy, but in this situation, including a name might be the only way to achieve resolution. It is a sticky problem because time has passed, thus creating growing worry and doubt. I think your messages have been carefully worded not to assign blame unnecessarily. You are the victim of someone else's (probable) mistake which has created more than a minor inconvenience. You have, in my opinion, been levelheadedly working to solve something that never should have happened in the first place.

 

Others may have different opinions, but this is mine.

 

Jimmybean

Thank you, Jimmybean. I really appreciate it.

I admit to being confused (nothing unusal there :)...On your other thread, you wrote that "they certainly left two bags of their own in Brooklyn". Here you say "a bag that was identical to mine" was left. Do you know how many bags in total remain unclaimed from your voyage? Not that that really matters - the important thing is that you are trying to locate your missing bag which may or may not have any connection with any unclaimed bags.

 

You mentioned that you hoped to shame Cunard into acting by your Facebook posting. (I'm not on Facebook, so I have no idea what was written.) What is it that you want Cunard to do, if you don't mind my asking?

 

BTW, we might think it's silly, but there are people who prefer that their names not be associated with mass internet searches for their contact information. And perhaps people have different reasons wanting to keep their travel whereabouts off the internet. For example, last week I was talking to someone about their recent cruise, and he asked me to keep it just between us that he took his family on a cruise because he didn't want his mother-in-law to know...apparently because she constantly tells him he spends his money on the wrong things.:eek:

 

Salacia

Honestly, Salacia, I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here. I am sorry that you find what I am doing to be so confusing, but you don't have all the facts and I am not obligated to share them with you. Further, many of these facts came to light after I started both of these threads.

If Cruise Critic thought that I had done the wrong thing, the mods would have taken my post down. If you would like to pursue that with them, then please do.

I do know how many bags remain unclaimed from my voyage (two). One of them is identical to my bag. Both of them belong to these people (who were in my disembarkation group, which was a very early one, so very few people were off the ship before us).

I'm sensitive to the internet privacy issue; I really am. I'm 33 and I work in technology...this ain't my first rodeo on the interwebz. However, I am going to do whatever I have to do in order to find my bag - which by the way contains a number of items that I would rather not have out in the public, such as my work laptop and all of the data stored on it (I packed it in there accepting that it might break but never thinking it might disappear altogether).

There is no significant personal information on my other post. Just a relatively common name and a very rough location. If it were that easy to identify and track these people down, I guarantee I would have achieved it by now. I am fairly confident that no one's privacy is truly at stake.

Have you looked on facebook?

 

There's a 'Hilary Scherrer' from Virginia that I guess you could send a message to. Worth a shot. ;)

That is such a great idea, but I already spoke with her. She was very kind and completely unperturbed by being contacted by me, though!

No, I don't think that is the most likely scenario. You maintain that a passenger whose name and other personal details you published on another thread, left his or her bags at the pier and took one of your bags. I'm not certain why you believe that particular passenger took your bag. Even if that passengers unclaimed bags remain at the port, that does not mean she/he/they have your bag, does it?

 

One of my suitcases went missing once...I never learned who took it by mistake, but I was grateful to the Cunard passenger who found it and phoned me. I wish for you the same happy result. -S.

Well, the other passenger who left a bag at the pier was in my same disembarkation group AND left a bag that was identical to mine. Same brand, same colour, same style. That would be a very big coincidence, don't you think? Both the Brooklyn pier and Cunard have told me separately that they believe these people took my bag by accident.

I'm sorry if you think I did the wrong thing here but I need to find my bag and I don't have many other options at this stage.

Believe me, there are lots of people with the same name in Virginia. I don't think it is out of line to see if anyone came in contact with this person while on the ship. And there are no other personal details on that post.

Did you ask Cunard to intervene? Surely they would contact them to see if they have the bag.

Yes. Sadly, as Salacia pointed out, this is a continuation of another thread. Cunard and I have been in communication but they have declined to pursue this passenger for reasons I cannot understand.

I really appreciate all of the support. Thank you for the encouraging words.

It seems the most likely scenario by far that the people who left their bags at the pier have my bag and don't realise it. I really, really hope that's the case (though I wonder who travels for this long without even checking their email? I wish I could manage that kind of trip).

I've tried private messaging them as well. The public Facebook post is really in an attempt to shame them into acting.

I've spoken with the pier in Brooklyn as well. Those guys are trying hard to find these people but they are completely limited to the disembarkation luggage tag (which SHOULD be accurate - these passengers will have filled it out the day before disembarkation), which only gives an address and a phone number that goes nowhere.

It's just maddening. I am so appreciative to all of you and your wonderful ideas, though.

I am looking for a fellow passenger from the TA on October 22-29 from Southampton to NYC.

Did anyone come across a Hillary Scherrer (Shearer?) from Virginia? Will have been travelling with her spouse, whose name I don't have. Andrew, perhaps?

I believe these two people may have taken my bag by mistake, and they certainly left two bags of their own in Brooklyn.

I'm desperate to find my own bag and would love to help these two people locate theirs as well.

I have tried everything. I have phoned these people, looked on Facebook, tried all of the people in Virginia with matching names. There's just no sign of my bag. I'm so sad.

What's worse, I have tried to escalate this with Cunard. I have asked to speak with a supervisor again and again, but they won't give me her contact details. I first asked to speak with her on November 12 and she STILL has not called me back.

Cunard doesn't care at all. How do you escalate if they won't let you contact anyone but the lowliest lost property guy?

Now SR normally stands for Solent Richard but at the wave of a wand it could be Sleuth Richard.

 

Now that you have given us some more information I would possibly suggest that Cunard may indeed be able to help you.

 

I do seem to remember that on a cruise personaliser they take a phone number. This, added to the fact you know it is a Virginia address, there may be, with the right approach, a chance of gleaning relevant information.

 

I still stand by my comment of yesterday though. After 4 weeks of 'no claim' on the other bag it's time to spring it open for more clues.

Ah, see, that's where Cunard has really failed. They do know exactly who these people are. Names, phone numbers, email address, physical address, passport numbers, credit card number...all of the stuff that one gives them when booking. They have all of that on file. Mind, they only looked all of that up last Thursday, three weeks after disembarkation, because I demanded they do so.

However, Cunard feels that they cannot accuse someone of taking my bag (I agree, though I think given the circumstances, it's fairly certain these people took it - by accident, I'm sure) so they won't pursue it. They will only make two attempts at contacting a passenger and then they leave it alone. This, even though they have said repeatedly that they believe these people took my bag.

I say we are at the four week mark: though it is probable that if these people do have my bag, they just haven't noticed yet, it is entirely possible that they have it, know it and haven't reported it.

Cunard knows exactly when we all got off the ship, and we all disembarked and went straight to the baggage hall, which is surrounded by CCTV cameras. There is about a twenty-minute window in which my bag will have been taken if it was indeed taken by these people. Look at the CCTV footage, Cunard! Confirm who took it and then we have a whole new set of tools at our disposal.

I'd leave this alone and claim in an instant if it weren't for the handful of sentimental contents in the bag.

The saddest thing for me is that I only brought the wedding dress quilt on the ship because I thought it was less risky. Meanwhile, all 96 of the boxes we shipped over on a container ship made it to Montana just fine.

If it's a US number, it will have (XXX) XXX-XXXX 10 digits. The first three digits will identify the area code, which would potentially give you a state, region or approximate location. Will mobile phones, that's not as certain as it used to be. I think Canadian numbers work in the same fashion.

Haha, thank you. It's a Virginia number and it's a landline, which makes is doubly frustrating, as they either are not home or the number is incorrect. I have called it again and again and there just isn't anyone on the other end.

I know their names and I do know where they live...but I'm in Montana and their address is in Virginia. I'm not sure I can just show up on their doorstep and demand to see their luggage.

It seems to me that this is Cunard's job...

Also, for what it's worth, I do have the phone number from the other bag. I have called it repeatedly and there is never an answer. There is also not an answer machine.

Thanks to all who replied.

I did take the contact information off the identical bag's tag, in that I have the phone number and the names of the other people. I will admit that in the chaos of the morning (our dog was in a panic amid the crowds of the baggage hall and we still had to go through my husband's new-immigrant immigration process), I didn't take down as much information as I should have.

And yes, my bag has contact information on it as well, including my new US address and mobile phone number.

I do have travel insurance, but it is through Cunard. I am definitely covered for the bag and all of its contents (up to $3000) but obviously I would rather find the bag than claim, given its contents. It's a good idea to contact the insurance company, though...

I cannot tell you all how much I appreciate your words of comfort and your advice. I also believe that it was taken by accident and I do believe that the people who left their own bag behind will eventually get in touch. It's just that we disembarked now exactly four weeks ago and there hasn't been a word from these people.

Thank you all again (and happy Thanksgiving for those in the US).

The people who took the wrong bag still maybe traveling.

Thank you for saying that. That is my very sincere hope. It is so difficult to believe that a fellow passenger from a TA on the QM2 would have any reason to take my bag on purpose or not report it when they realised they took the wrong one.

I sailed on the QM2 from Southampton to New York on 22-29 October 2015. My husband and I were moving from the UK to the US and had not only our dog and cat aboard, but also eight large suitcases.

When we disembarked, one of the suitcases was not in the baggage hall. As it happens, this is the suitcase that contained the quilt that I had made from my wedding dress, along with a number of other sentimental items (including my childhood teddy bear - lame, I know, but I'm rather attached). The suitcase didn't contain anything of any monetary value, though it did have all of my summer dresses and a very old and worthless laptop.

It's pretty clear what happened: when we disembarked (some of the first off the ship due to traveling with pets), an identical bag to mine, from the same disembarkation group, was left behind. Plainly, someone took my bag by mistake.

I obviously logged a missing bag report with the staff at the pier and was assured that they would find the bag.

The problem is that we are nearly four weeks past disembarkation and there is no sign of my bag. The identical bag has still not been claimed.

I was directed to the Princess Cruises lost property team, who have basically been obstructive in their response. They report that the pier has repeatedly called the number on the luggage tag but have never received an answer. They say that they have done everything they can, but they didn't even bother to look up alternate contact information for the people who probably have my bag until I demanded they do so last Thursday. No one from Princess will return my calls, nor will they return the calls of the (London) Times reporter I enlisted to help me. What they tell me when I call them is that my bag is considered lost and that the search is basically over, though I can't see how that can possibly be the case when they have not managed to get in touch with the people who likely have my bag.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Any idea on how I can get Princess/Cunard to take this seriously? So far, I have been treated like a nuisance and not as a paying customer (and two-time Cunard voyager) who has lost a very important item.

I'm devastated and I don't know what other actions to take. Princess tells me to claim for the bag, though I am very concerned that claiming will end the search for good.

Advice?